FRIENDLY HOST:Japanese Internet users have been collecting signatures with an online petition to have Taiwan use its own name at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2016
By: Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Several civic organizations yesterday jointly called for the official title and flag of the nation’s Olympic
New Power Party Legislator Freddy Lim, left, looks on as campaigners remove a Chinese Taipei flag to unveil a map of Taiwan at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
team to be “corrected,” saying they hope that “Taiwan” will be used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Taiwan participates in the Games under the name “Chinese Taipei,” with a flag depicting five rings and a plum blossom, the Republic of China’s national flower.
The flag raised during medal ceremonies at the Olympics does not represent the nation and cannot lead to the normalization of Taiwan’s national identity, the groups said, adding that it should be replaced before the Tokyo Olympics with a flag that represents Taiwan.
“At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Taiwan attended under the title of ‘Formosa,’ but athletes marched behind a self-made banner that read ‘under protest’ at the opening ceremony. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, the International Olympic Committee agreed to use the name ‘Taiwan,’ but Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) flagrantly refused to send athletes to the Games,” Taiwan People News chairman Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興), who launched the campaign, told a news conference in Taipei. [FULL STORY]
